Cloudron price is too high

[aft2d]

Hi all,

I'm using Cloudron for several years now. In the first months also as a paid user. For a while, I even paid for the Pro plan when it was discounted.

For 2 or 3 years I'm on free since I don't really use it. I just have pasteboard running...

Currently, I use Google Workspace, for which I currently pay 10,40 € - and everything is included. Storage, applications - everything

The main advantage for me to use Cloudron is to not have to worry about the administration of applications (I do that enough in my job ) that I need to manage my private stuff and still have some control over where exactly my data is and what happens to it.
One place where I have everything: Mails, contacts, files, Git and everything you need.

But if I want to use Cloudron to be the master of my data, I pay ~15€ incl. VAT and that's not even including the vServer. If I then want to have a vServer with enough storage space, I pay 10-15€ on top again - and then I still have to work out a backup solution and need space for it.
Apart from the fact that I then have to book an annual plan so that I get this price.

I know Cloudron is not an exact counter product to Google Workspace etc. . Cloudron has a lot more features and possibilities, which can be seen from the fact that you can install a large number of open source apps just as easily, whereas with Google you are reduced to the Google apps. In addition, you do not pay Cloudron per user.

Nevertheless, Cloudron is for me an alternative product to Google Workspace and therefore for me personally it has to compete with Google Workspace in terms of price.

I've also poked around here in the forum to find out what the Cloudron team thinks about their pricing.
There came the argumentation that you theoretically have to take into account the amount of work you put into the administration.
I understand that so far, however, this does not quite fit my use case.
For me, as someone who is looking for a solution for his private stuff, I do not start to calculate my working time to manage private things. I also don't start to calculate if it's worth to cook myself or to order every day at Lieferando/Takeway.

I don't want to start a discussion whether the price for Cloudron is justified or not.
At the end of the day, it's about what the Cloudron developers value their product and their work. Likewise, of course, I may not be the target audience Cloudron wants to address.
I just wanted to explain why I decided not to buy Cloudron and maybe that's something the Cloudron team will take into consideration when reworking their pricing next time.

Thanks for reading

[LoudLemur]

@aft2d

It is good to hear your views. I think Cloudron is so desperately needed and so incredibly useful and so supportive of Freedom, I find it difficult to argue against what is asked. I also sincerely hope to support a project with such enormous potential to help people move away from proprietary services and onto Free Software.

What I think we need to do is to popularize Cloudron. With more users, there will hopefully be more revenue and that might help keep prices low. The extra users might also bring along more developers and that could help too.

If Cloudron reaches a critical mass of users, I think it will just rocket in popularity. Lets help make that happen!

[timconsidine]

@aft2d everyone has their own circumstances, so respect yours

Yet IMHO Cloudron is stand-out good value, and it's simply not possible to compare with other platforms. Especially considering that on a platform like GSuite (or whatever they're calling it now), a modest 20 user subscription will be min £50+VAT p/m. OK they provide the server but Cloudron still compares well.

Above all I value Cloudron for time-saving. 5mins to spin up an app vs typically minimum average 1 hour manually.
I have 60 app instances running and am constantly exploring as well as actively using, so the time saving is significant.

Just my 2p.

[humptydumpty]

@timconsidine I agree with you that you can't compare Google services to Cloudron. For me, Google is NOT an option. To be fair, I have to compare apples to apples and that would be managing all these self-hosted apps on my own or through Cloudron and that's when you can see the true value you're paying for.

With that said, Cloudron's pricing model gives app resellers/web hosts/wtv they're called more bang for their buck when compared to someone using Cloudron simply to manage their own data. IIRC, the staff will be looking at changing the current pricing model in the future.

[necrevistonnezr]

@aft2d Thanks for your thoughts! I feel you - I’m a (very) early paying customer and still on an old plan - and I run my little NUC at home. So recurring cost wise, it’s not too bad. If I had to start from scratch now, the monthly costs would be much higher, though.

I think the essence is: There’s a „home“ or „private“ use case (you and me, using files, contacts, mail, etc at home) and a „professional“ use case (e.g. reselling services on Cloudron to customers). IIRC, Cloudron used to have different „pro“ tier than now - certain kind of apps required a special plan but that was abandoned. It would be great to have a „home“ tier again, it’s just difficult to define! I guess

[ruihildt]

@humptydumpty said in Cloudron price is too high:

With that said, Cloudron's pricing model gives app resellers/web hosts/wtv they're called more bang for their buck when compared to someone using Cloudron simply to manage their own data. IIRC, the staff will be looking at changing the current pricing model in the future.

i think that's the main issue, personal self-hosting pricing vs web hosting pricing.
If you're in the first, then it's expensive, if you're in the second, then it's a no brainer.

[privsec]

@ruihildt I would almost argue that even as a personal user, that bang for buck is there.

Cloudron provides data privacy and built in security, by default.

For $420/usd a year, one can have an all in one home for everything.

[necrevistonnezr]

@privsec said in Cloudron price is too high:

@ruihildt I would almost argue that even as a personal user, that bang for buck is there.

Cloudron provides data privacy and built in security, by default.

For $420/usd a year, one can have an all in one home for everything.

That’s already the region for a decent Synology system. I know, it’s a totally different concept but app-wise still has the same target (home/private/smb) audience.

[girish]

@timconsidine said in Cloudron price is too high:

Especially considering that on a platform like GSuite (or whatever they're calling it now), a modest 20 user subscription will be min £50+VAT p/m.

Isn't gsuite pricing per user? https://workspace.google.com/pricing.html . Maybe the pricing is different for different countries but here it is 6USD/u/m, so that would be 120p/m.

[privsec]

@necrevistonnezr
A nice symbology system, sure, but you’re capped at drive bay space.

So unless you’re able to find a 6-bay symbology system that can support 14tb drives (or larger) in each bay, that wouldn’t be worth it to me.

But at least now we are comparing apples to apples